I think I didn’t realize my shortcomings until Pinterest came around. Don’t get me wrong. I love Pinterest. I think it has definitely helped me in many ways, and I’m constantly inspired when I spend time browsing everyone’s pins. But it also makes me realize just how bad I am at holidays.

I’ve tried before. Spiders and ghosts and monster brains – oh, my! But it’s just not my strong point. While others have been brainstorming and posting cute Halloween ideas for parties and gifts for the past month, I’ve been stuck on comfort foods and soups.

At the beginning of October, I decided that I was ok with it. I didn’t need any recipes specifically made for Halloween. I’d let the creative people take care of that.

But then I decided I was up for the challenge.

Dark Chocolate Cake with Nutella Buttercream

As I was trying to decide what to make, I came across a container of dark cocoa powder in my cupboard, and I instantly knew what I wanted to make. The ultimate chocolate cake. Deep and dark and perfect for Halloween.

The beauty of this cake, though, is that it doesn’t have to be just for Halloween. The cake is a very rich, dark chocolate cake that will leave chocoholics with a smile on their face. I didn’t want to do a straight up chocolate frosting, and I decided that a Nutella buttercream would be perfect with the dark chocolate.

The Best Chocolate Cake Recipe

Now, this isn’t your typical chocolate layer cake. This cake is the most moist chocolate cake you will ever have. Not even kidding. I originally was going to just make a 2 layer cake, but for some reason, it just didn’t feel right. This cake was screaming to be made into a full 4 layer cake. It’s totally over the top and rich and decadent, and a little slice goes a long way, but it’s all totally worth it. And totally holiday worthy.

Because of the nature of this cake recipe, don’t be alarmed if the cakes fall a little bit in the middle, because they probably will. This isn’t a light and fluffy cake, but an extremely moist cake. But don’t fret – you’ll level off the cakes and you can use the scraps to decorate the outside of the cake. Since I’m such a horrible cake decorator, I love having tricks like this up my sleeve because then no one can tell that you didn’t frost the cake perfectly!

Perfect Halloween Cakes

This is the perfect cake for Halloween because it is so deep and dark. I originally bought the eyes to put on my spiders, but they were just too big and didn’t look right, and at the last minute, I decided to put them randomly over the outside of the cake. And I think that ended up being my favorite part! Most grocery stores sell the little eyes these days, and they are an easy way to decorate when you are decorating challenged.

Dark Chocolate Cake with Nutella Buttercream

Description

Dark and rich, this Dark Chocolate Cake with Nutella Buttercream is the perfect centerpiece for your Halloween party. Chocolate lovers will instantly fall in love with this dark chocolate cake!

Ingredients

Dark Chocolate Cake

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups dark cocoa powder

3 teaspoons baking powder

3 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons salt

4 cups sugar

1 cup butter, melted

2 cups milk

4 large eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups boiling water

Nutella Buttercream

1 1/2 cups butter

3 cups powdered sugar

1 cup Nutella

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

pinch of salt

1-2 tablespoons cream

1 tablespoon dark cocoa powder

Chocolate Spiders (optional)

semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

Arrange an oven rack in the reheat the oven to 350ºF.Spray 4 9-inch round baking pans with nonstick cooking spray.Line the bottoms of the pans with parchment paper, then lightly spray the paper with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In the bowl of a mixer, mix together the sugar and the butter.Add in the milk, eggs and vanilla, and mix until combined.Add the dry ingredients and mix until combined.Pour in the boiling water and gently mix until combined.The batter will be thin.

Divide the batter evenly between the 4 pans.Bake in until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 30-35 minutes.(Don’t be alarmed if your cakes puff up and then fall in the center.They will probably fall a little, but you will even the cakes out and can use the scraps to decorate the cake.)

Let the cakes cool for 10 minutes, then run a knife around the outside of the pan and turn them out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.Remove the parchment paper from the bottoms of the cakes.

At this point, you can wrap the cakes in plastic wrap and refrigerate them or freeze them, which will make decorating the cake easier, or you can proceed to assembling the cake as long as they are cooled completely.

To make the buttercream, cream the butter in a mixer until smooth and creamy.Add in the powdered sugar, a little at a time, until fully incorporated.Mix in the Nutella, vanilla and salt and beat until light and fluffy.Add as much cream as needed to make the frosting a spreading consistency, adding a teaspoon at a time.If making the spiders and the spiderweb, transfer 1/2 cup of the frosting to another bowl and mix in the 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder.

To make the spider legs, place some chocolate chips in a ziplock bag.Microwave on 50% power in 15 second increments until the chocolate chips have melted.Cut a small corner off the bag, and pipe out legs in the shape of a 7 onto a piece of waxed paper on a baking sheet.Transfer to the freezer until you are ready to decorate the cake.

To assemble the cake: Level each of the cake layers, reserving the scraps.Place one layer on a cake stand or serving plate.Top with some of the buttercream and spread in an even layer to the edged.Top with another cake layer, then more buttercream.Repeat with another cake layer, more buttercream, and then the final cake layer.Spread a thin layer of frosting over the outside of the cake.Refrigerate the cake for 10-15 minutes.

While the cake is in the refrigerator, take the reserved scraps of cake and crumble them as best as you can.The cake is very moist, so if the scraps aren’t crumbling, you can put them on a baking sheet and place them in a 250ºF oven to dry them out a bit, which will help.

Use the remainder of the frosting to go over the cake, making sure it is covered evenly.

Take the reserved 1/2 cup of frosting and place it in a piping bag fitted with a small round tip.Starting in the center of the cake, make a spiral for the spider web.Using a toothpick, starting at the center, gently pull out through the frosting to pull the lines of the darker buttercream, forming the spider web.With the remaining buttercream, pipe out the heads and bodies of the spiders.(Make sure you don’t make more spiders than you have legs, though.)Remove the chocolate legs from the freezer and place 8 legs on each spider.

Take the cake crumbs and gently press them into the outside of the cake.

Reader Interactions

Comments

A two layer cake will never do for this kind of holiday over-the-top goodness. I’m normally so-so about chocolate cake (none are ever moist enough!), but I know I would absolutely love this! Laughed so hard at your Pinterest comment too. I feel the same way!

Oh my goodness-I saw this as a pin the other day and I was like “WHO MADE THAT CAKE” because it is so beautiful! And then today I read your post and saw all the eyes and spiders and I just totally love it! It looks amazing and I just want to face dive into that frosting.

OH MY! I have a tried and true chocolate cake recipe that I rarely stray from, but I have to try this recipe. It looks amazing. I recently ordered 2 copies of your Red Velvet Lovers cookbook (one for me and one for my daughter in law). It shipped today and I’m excited to get them!

What a cute cake!! I don’t usually make butter based cakes because I love how oil keeps cakes nice and moist but that looks so good, I’ll have to try it. I won’t have time to make this in time for Halloween so I’m bummed that I won’t be able to use this theme but I surely will make it for another occasion. Thanks!!

I have never heard or seen Challenge butter. I’ll look out for it from here on out. I use the same chocolate cake recipe! Also, I’ve tried a Nutella buttercream recipe very similar to yours, but everyone found it too sweet because Nutella is already sweet, and 3 cups of powdered sugar proved to be overkill. I plan to try out this buttercream again with half the sugar to see how it turns out. Anyway, gorgeous photos! they are so clear!

This looks insane! That frosting, OH MY! Do you think this could be made into cupcakes instead of the 4 layer cake? I don’t mind the layers, I think they are lovely, but my sis who is more a novice baker would do better with cupcakes and I think she needs to bake these for a bake sale. What do you think?

Hi Inga, I haven’t tried the recipe as cupcakes, and honestly – I’m not sure how well it would convert over. The cake is more dense and moist than most cake recipes, and it does rise and fall a bit as a cake. I’m just afraid the cupcakes would fall too much. You can definitely try, but I might suggest trying a different chocolate cake recipe and this nutella frosting. (This recipe is one of my favorites for cupcakes and has had great feedback – https://www.tasteandtellblog.com/eggless-chocolate-cupcakes/)

Hi Fredda – I haven’t tried doing 3 layers – only 4, so I’m not sure how it would turn out. I’m guessing that it would be fine and that your layers would just be taller, but since I haven’t tested, I’m not positive!

Made this last night. I didn’t have enough batter for 4 layers. I used 8 inch pans and I got 3 layers that were about 2 inches tall when done and had maybe a cup of batter left. If I had made another layer with that then it would have been very small. My layers didn’t fall in the middle at al so I guess that is good but I have never had as much trouble getting cake out of a pan as I did with this recipe. I thought maybe it was because I used spray to prep the pans so the last layer I used shortening and flour and still had trouble. The layers seemed moist when taking out of the pan but once assembled and a piece was cut it was very dry. And I had to double the buttercream because I did not have enough to do in between all layers plus top and sides. The taste was fine. Very sweet. Will try again at some point with some tweeking to see if I get different results. Also it is helpful when people actually comment on the recipe that have made it to let people know if they had problems or if they had to do things different. Tons of comments about how good it looks and they can’t wait to make it are fine, but it doesn’t help anyone. I base on whether I want to try a new recipe a lot of times on the reviews. So far the recipes I have tried where no one gives an actual review, are ones that don’t turn out. I guess from now on I will save them and check periodically for someone to review it to decide whether to try it.

I’m so sorry it didn’t work out perfectly for you. I’ve made this cake a few times now, and it has always been really moist. I’m wondering if it’s because I did thinner layers in 9-inch pans? My finished layers were probably only an inch to *maybe* an inch and a half tall. And with this cake, I have only tried it with putting a layer of parchment paper in the pan as specified in the instructions. I can see how they cakes would be hard to get out otherwise.

This is now my favorite chocolate cake! I’ve been looking for a long time for the perfect moist chocolate cake and here it is.
I substituted coffee for the water and sour cream for the milk. Then decreased the baking powder by 2 tsp and increased the baking soda by 2 tsp to get the correct balance and it turned out amazing. Slightly thinker batter but it baked around the same amount of time, perhaps slightly longer but no much.
Thank you for the recipe this is going to be a family favorite for years to come. 🙂

Made this for Christmas Eve and it was a hit! Turned out perfectly! I did cut down on the sugar for the frosting though to reduce the amount of sweetness since my family tends to always complain about frosting being to sweet (weird I know). I made the full 4 layers but I made a 3 layer cake and pulled out one of the layers early so that my father and I could chow down on a half baked cake since we love when it’s not fully cooked.
I didn’t even have to level off the cakes…somehow they came out flat which saved me some time!
Overall it was a complete hit and my family loved it! Thanks for the recipe!

Hi! I would LOVE to make your recipe for my sister’s birthday, but she doesn’t like dark chocolate. If I were to make the cake with cocoa powder instead of dark cocoa powder, would it still taste great? Or ruin the taste? Please let me know 🙂

Hmmm, I’m not sure how well it would work in a 9×13. I am pretty sure that the 9×13 wouldn’t be big enough for the whole cake – you might have to halve the recipe. It is a pretty heavy cake, so it might have a hard time even if you did cut it in half. Sorry!!

I made the cake, precisely as directed. It did not rise and fall at all. I only baked mine for 20 minutes as I could tell it did not fill the 9 inch pans very much and would not take the full 30-35 min. I wish I had baked it just a little less…I think that slightly undercooked is where you get the slight “fall” and thus very moist cake. So I’d recommend keeping a close eye after about 18 min and check to see if it’s ready to come out. Mine is thoroughly cooked and not at all extra moist as shown in pictures above. I can’t imagine what it would have been like if I had baked it as directed. I am sure that it has something to do with climate and oven temp variations. I am in a very dry climate and everything takes a shorter time to bake in my oven than directed. Hope that is helpful to some who attempt to make this.

Made this for a family gathering. It was perfect just as written. So decadent, everyone loved it. For an “ordinary” day I would half the recipe. But for an occasion this veritable tower of chocolate was perfect.

I can’t wait to try out this recipe for the Halloween celebrations this weekend!
I’m kind of new to baking and I have a question:
In the Nutella Buttercream recipe section, what kind of cream do we use? Heavy whipping cream? Or regular whipping cream?

Hello! This looks delightful:) I will be attempting this today for my sisters birthday party tomorrow, seeing she loves chocolate & Nutella!
Quick question: when you say “cream” you are referring to “whipping cream”? Thanks 🙂

I made this today for our 15 year wedding anniversary. My husband and son LOVED this cake! Seriously, one of the best and most impressive looking cakes I have ever made. Minus spiders and eyeballs…since it is April. Hahaha. THANK YOU!

I made this cake last weekend, and it is huge! It’s essentially 2 regular double layer cakes stacked; I was expecting the layers to be thinner. I only had enough icing for in between the layers–thankfully naked cakes are trendy. The cake was good the day I made it, but was delectable the next day after being frosted and stored in the fridge.

Sorry for my delay in answering! I hope it all worked out for you. I haven’t tried it in an 8-inch pan, but the layers aren’t super tall so I’m guessing it would work. This is a very big cake with 9-inch cake layers, though, so if you do 8-inch, be prepared for a very tall cake!

This is an awesome cake! I made it and shared with several friends. They all raved about how good this cake is, even those who said they don’t like dark chocolate. I followed the recipe as written, except for the decorations. Great recipe! Thanks for posting it.

Good gravy!! Just when I think I can’t think I have had enough Nutella….who am I kidding..That never happens! This looks holy amazing scrumptious! I just need a fork. I am so happy this came up on my Google feed hahaha Thank you!! Carry on good citizen!!